Glossary of Poetic Forms

The following are poetic forms that have appeared in Shot Glass Journal.

Nonet
A Nonet is a nine line poem, with the first line containing nine syllables, the next eight, so on until the last line has one syllable. Nonets can be written about any subject, and rhyming is optional.

Oviellejo
An Old Spanish verse form (derived from ovillo, a ball of yarn). A stanza consists of 10 lines, with a
rhyme scheme of AABBCCCDDC. The second line of each rhyme scheme, Line 2,4,6, is short line of up to 5 syllables. The last line is a "redondilla," a "little round" that collects all three of the short lines.

Palindromic cinquain
A Palindromic Cinquain is a Cinquain written as a Palindrome. The Cinquain is a short, usually unrhymed poem consisting of twenty-two syllables distributed as 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, in five lines. The Palindrome is poem with a sequence that is the same forwards and backwards.

Pantoum
The Pantoum is a type of formal verse that is distinguished by cycling refrains. They are written in quatrains, that may be rhymed or unrhymed. The first quatrain consists of four lines. The second quatrain uses the second and fourth lines from the first quatrain as its first and third lines. The second and fourth lines of the second quatrain are new to the poem. The third quatrain uses the second and fourth lines of the second quatrain as its refrains in the first and third line positions. The third quatrain's second and fourth lines are new to the poem. The last line of a pantoum is often the same as the first.

Pantun
The Pantun is a 15th century Malay poetry form that originated as a traditional oral form of expression in the Malay Annals and the Hikayat Hang Tuah. It consists of a quatrain of eight to twelve syllables per line and employs an abab rhyme scheme. The first and second lines can appear disconnected in meaning from the third and fourth, but there is invariably a link of some sort, such as association of ideas or feelings.

Puente
A 3 stanza form created by James Rasmusson, with the first and third stanza having an equal number of lines and the middle stanza having only one line which acts as a bridge (puente) between the first and third stanza and functions as the ending for the last line of the first stanza and as the beginning for the first line of the third stanza. The first and third stanzas convey a related but different element or feeling.

Pi-Archimedes
A 6 line poetry form base on PI = 3.14286. Each line represents the number of words used from the PI number.

Prose
A poem written in prose rather than verse. It can look like a paragraph or fragmented short story but acts like a poem. It works in sentences rather than lines.

Quandrel
A Quandrel is a poem of twelve lines, with the refrain appearing at the start and repeating twice. It differs from a Roundel in that the middle stanza has an additional line. The refrain establishes the second or 'b' rhyme (abaR baba abaR).